Is your Nexus 7 having touchscreen issues?

Google’s Nexus 7 tablet is finally making its way to eager buyers, but some users may quickly find themselves frustrated by touchscreen issues.

After using the Nexus 7 for several weeks now, I’ve found that the device’s touchscreen has issues registering my inputs when it’s performing data intensive tasks like updating several apps at once. I can’t consistently replicate the issue, but it’s happened enough times to frustrate me. I’ve also noticed this issue with my girlfriend’s Nexus 7 as she was synchronizing the tablet with several apps from her phone.

Separately, Ryan Whitwam at Geek.com noticed that running graphics intensive games on the Nexus 7 consistently kills touch response from a large portion of the screen.

“Touching the right side (when held in portrait) of the screen sometimes elicits no response from the tablet,” Whitwam writes. “Sometimes the Nexus 7 will detect the touch, but quickly loses connection and the touch point is lost. The dead area runs all the way up the height of the panel, and across to about the mid point. The severity of the issue seems to vary over time; some occurrences are much less serious than others. To temporarily solve the issue, I can turn the screen off and back on.”

I wasn’t able to replicate the issue Whitwam described, but it was striking to me how similar his issues are to mine. When my Nexus 7 touchscreen starts to hiccup, I often have to touch and swipe the screen several times before my input gets registered. It’s also worth noting that several commenters on Whitwam’s post report similar touchscreen problems.

While these touchscreen issues could just be the result of defective Nexus 7 units, I’m beginning to think there’s a much more widespread problem. You can find further evidence of Nexus 7 owners having touchscreen issues at a lively thread on the XDA Developer forum, which was started a few days ago.

I’ve dropped a line to Google for comment. For now, please let us know if you’re having trouble with your Nexus 7.